July 24, 2012 | 1:03 PM |

Daily Telegraph: Pivotal Romney Moment? Son’s Cancer Scare In Britain

FILED UNDER: Medicine/Science, Politics, mitt romney, single-payer
2006 Romneycare handshake

In this April 12, 2006, file photo, then-Gov. Mitt Romney is seen with lawmakers and staffers after signing the state’s universal health coverage law at Faneuil Hall in Boston. (AP File)

Yes, if British doctors tell you that your son may have colon cancer but will have to wait six weeks for a colonoscopy, I can see how you might develop even more of an antipathy toward government involvement in health care.

The Daily Telegraph has the full yarn here, in advance of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s trip to England tomorrow.

It has some nice details of the no-frills, moldy-flat life Romney’s third son, Josh, lived in England while he was a Mormon missionary there in 1995. The medical story: A doctor in Sheffield told Josh his stomach problem might be colon cancer. (Though if you read the full story, you might diagnose it as colon blockage caused by eating too much cheap beef.)

Even worse, Mitt Romney later recalled, “the waiting time for a colonoscopy was six weeks – enough time to make an operable, curable cancer become an inoperable terminal condition”.

The family was appalled. “It was scary,” Josh, now a 36-year-old property developer in Utah, told The Daily Telegraph while campaigning with his father in Florida. “I am in favour of you reforming your health care system,” he joked.

His parents, who were raised in the wealthy Michigan enclave of Bloomfield Hills, could not believe John Major’s government would consign Britons to death by maintaining a creaking Soviet-style system – even if it was free for foreign visitors such as their son.
“It made us realise things were different over there,” Josh’s mother, Ann, said after a campaign rally in South Carolina. “He just couldn’t get the answers he needed.”

Not to worry, it all ends well, American-style: Mitt paid cash to send Josh to a private clinic.

Hat-tip to WBUR’s Fred Thys.

  • LLB

    A delay of six weeks could make all the difference in the world when dealing with the aggressive cancers of Lynch syndrome or if a tumor existed and there was a blockage or excessive bleeding…it could result in a fatal situation.

    With hereditary cancers, sometimes tumors can metastasize in as short a time as one to two years…anytime there are symptoms of serious problems, such as bleeding or severe abdominal pain, testing should be immediate, not postponed six weeks and God forbid, six months, as occasionally seen in overburdened public health care systems, including our own public health system.

    I am pleased to see Governor Romney seeing the seriousness of this issue especially since in the past two years, preventative care has been severely decreased for medicaid and medicare patients, as well as standards for effective health care reduced.

  • ds

    So Josh had a tummy ache, was able to see a doctor, maybe a colonoscopy wouldn’t hurt.  Six weeks wait.  Suppose it had been cancer, costs for surgery, drugs, rehab would be taken care of even for this free-loader.

    In the US, for a similar episode for such an impecunious uninsured male:
    Â
    1) see doctor – fat chance – try Emergency Department – wait, wait, wait  – try pepto- bismol

    2) if make it to the step of colonoscopy recommendation – who’s going to do it – no insurance, sorry -  and the first available routine appointment is 6 months from now.

    3) suppose it is cancer – no money ? no insurance ?  tough luck . – if you do have some resources, prepare to face bankrupcy.

    So in the UK you at least have an expectation of help and some hope of maintaining your dignity.
    In the US, for 50 million citizens – maybe no treatment at all, or if treatment prepare to beg for help for months and be completely bankrupted and homeless for the rest of your years. 

    Seems like colossal cheek for Romney  and ilk to criticize the UK six week wait and somehow imply that the US sytem is so much better … Hey he and his can buy their way to the head of the line no matter where they are.

  • Tmu

    Six weeks is NOT enough time for most colon cancers to progress from being an “operable, treatable” condition to an “inoperable, terminal condition.” Also, the risk of a twenty-something having colon cancer is very low. The British system would have diagnosed him and treated him, even though he was a visitor and not paying into their system. Ironically, one of your stories below is titled “Lack of insurance a top predictor in late stage cervical cancer diagnosis.” Cervical cancer is also a very slowly progressing cancer, one that is very curable for a long time before it becomes invasive. The difference that Americans really want to preserve is the ability for the weathy to buy their way to better access than that of the poor. We don’t like a system that treats everyone the same.